History, analysis, and unabashed gossip about the start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts.

J. L. BELL is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. He is particularly interested in the experiences of children in 1765-75. He has published scholarly papers and popular articles for both children and adults. He was consultant for an episode of History Detectives, and contributed to a display at Minute Man National Historic Park.

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

We don’t have the original letter that Joseph Palmer dashed off on the morning of 19 Apr 1775, alerting the Massachusetts Provincial Congress’s political allies in Connecticut that the British army had killed people at Lexington and asking speedy passage for the man carrying it. Instead, we have copies of that letter, hastily written at stops along the post riders’ route.

It’s only natural that errors crept into Palmer’s text. By the time the note reached New York, it referred to “Israel Bessel” and “T. Palmer.” Later copies, such as the one transcribed in Charles Burr Todd’s A General History of the Burr family in America (1872), appeared to render the rider’s name as “Trail Bissell.”

According to Miles and his citations, all the papers in the Massachusetts Archives about the post rider who carried Palmer’s message are signed by “Isaac Bissell,” who identified himself as from Suffield, Connecticut, near the Massachusetts border. In July 1775, the Provincial Congress approved his bill for six days of expenses while riding “to Hartford,” but then that body dissolved for elections and no one got around to paying the man.

In March 1776 Bissell wrote to Palmer: “Sir you may Remember when Lexinton Fite was you gave me an Express to Cary to Hartford in Connecticut which I did. . . .I think I Earn my money.” Finally on 23 April the Massachusetts House voted to pay Isaac Bissell the £2.1s. he’d asked for.

According to lineages published by the D.A.R.and S.A.R., after returning home to Suffield, Isaac Bissell (1749-1822) enlisted in a Connecticut regiment and marched back to Boston to participate in the siege. He was a sergeant in Col. Erastus Woolcott’s regiment until March 1776, and later mustered as part of the New Haven Alarm of July 1779. After the war he worked as a blacksmith in Suffield. His grave in the Suffield cemetery (shown in the thumbnail above; click for a full set on Flickr from caboose_rodeo) has been identified as that of a Revolutionary veteran for decades.

What about the Israel Bissell buried in Hinman Hinsdale, Massachusetts? His grave has gotten special attention from the D.A.R., and he’s been lauded in poetry, song, and art as the forgotten equal to Paul Revere. But all that celebration is just because of a spelling error.

Can you tell me why Watertown hired Bissell (Israel or Isaac) to ride? They had planned in advance for this rider. Why from Watertown? Are there minutes from meetings that discuss the need, hiring and the communication from Palmer to Watertown? What if Palmer had been killed, was there a plan B? What is the story of preparation for this rider for he was not a Watertown lad, that happened to be available that night but a selected and paid personnel of the Safety Committee (?) to run this particular errand and who was waiting for the "go ahead" to spread the news. Why him? Who chose him? What was his background? Why did they trust him? And when did this planning start? When did they decide they needed someone and what kind of planning was done so it would work? Can you unearth the answers? Can you be the rider of truth to spread the word to all who care and respect the deed?

The Massachusetts Provincial Congress, through its Committee of Safety member Joseph Palmer, appears to have hired Isaac Bissell. Bissell started from Watertown simply because Palmer was living there, but there was never any question of Watertown paying him.

Watertown was between Lexington and Boston, though not directly on the British regulars’ route. That meant Palmer got word of the British march and the shootings at Lexington relatively early, so he could spread the word.

But was that all planned? To some extent, it was; there was clearly some earlier communication between the Massachusetts Patriots and the government of Connecticut. But I don’t think Bissell was waiting in Watertown for the moment to ride (his bill doesn’t suggest that), and I don’t think the Committee of Safety had delegated Palmer and only him to send the message.

Rather, Palmer took it upon himself to spread the alarm, and other Committee members could have done so as well. Bissell could have been a regular post rider who happened to be nearby on the crucial day. Had circumstances been different, then another Committee man or another post rider could have taken up the same jobs.

Consider the better documented story of Revere’s ride. Revere, Dawes, and the unknown rider out of Charlestown were assigned to carry the message by top Patriot organizers. But Dr. Samuel Prescott and his brother Abel decided on their own to get the message through. Like the Prescotts, most of the riders that night were probably volunteers on the spot, yet they were probably also already involved in the Patriot movement. So the alarm was a combination of preparation and improvisation.